Extra powers needed for Dáil watchdog, says chairman

PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE REPORT:THERE WOULD be little point in proceeding with an inquiry into the banking crisis if additional powers are not granted by Government, the Public Accounts Committee said yesterday.

Launching its annual report, committee chairman Bernard Allen said it did not want to be “a watchdog that doesn’t bark or have teeth”.

Mr Allen mentioned an occasion where he said the HSE had refused to provide information to the committee on consultants’ contracts. He said the HSE had found it could legally reveal the information to anyone under a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, but would have a legal difficulty revealing the same information to the committee.

Mr Allen said the committee’s annual report highlighted a “litany of waste, poor policy and misuse of public money”. But he said it faced huge challenges such as the examination of expenditure by Nama and “the whole fiasco that is the Dublin Docklands Development Authority ”.

Mr Allen said among the changes the committee wanted was its exclusion from some measures of the Data Protection Act which had prevented some witnesses to the committee from giving direct evidence.

Asked if his comments implied the committee would refuse to investigate the Docklands authority or Nama, he said: “You can never refuse.” But at the same time he said the committee had a responsibility “and without the powers we can not do justice to the tax payer.”

Mr Allen said he was confident the Government would accede to the request for additional powers.

However, Róisín Shortall (Labour) said the committee had asked the Government for these powers 15 months ago. If the committee was going to look at the banking crisis and the DDDA “we will need those powers”, she said.

Mr Allen responded the committee had always acted “apolitically” and not split over any issue.

Seán Fleming (FF) said the committee “should be able by right” to get answers from those who appeared before it.

The committee also said it had written to Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan on June 4th expressing its frustration with the situation.

Mr Allen cited difficulties with the FoI Act and the Data Protection Act which he said “place impediments to the committee in gaining full access to documentation”. He also referred to the request for changes made to the Minister in February 2009 and while he noted the Minister did not accept these, he asked the Minister to review the issue.

Mr Allen asked for the review on the grounds that “it is not acceptable to have to rely on the provisions of the Compellability Act to get certain information given the cumbersome procedure that has to be undertaken to get such powers”.